Yoga has benefits for all ages

Aug. 25, 2008

Pretending to be wind, 6-year-old Josie Conely, left, and her sister Cassidy, 4, run around their mother Yvonne as she practices the “tree pose” during a yoga class at the South Valleys Library. / Julie Dawes/Reno Gazette-Journal

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Becky Rollins helps daughter Makayla Carter, 4, into the “table” position during a kids yoga class recently at the South Valleys Library. The class is targeted toward children, but parents are encouraged to participate. / Julie Dawes/Reno Gazette-Journal

Dallin Meidell, 6, completes one of the final stretches during a demo kids yoga class at the South Valleys Library on Wednesday evening. The class is taught by Mery Mares, who also teaches family yoga. / Julie Dawes/Reno Gazette-Journal

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When Mery Mares was learning to be a yoga instructor at age 20, she reflected on the good changes the practice of meditation, deep stretches, breathing and strengthening poses had given her in life. She wondered what impact yoga would have on people who learned it as children.

Mares, of Yoga with Mery, is now satisfying her curiosity by teaching yoga to children and families.

"I hit on teaching kids how to breathe," Mares said, "show them how to relax and how these tools and skills can improve the home-life situation, and how to concentrate in school."

Teaching the ancient Eastern practice to kids and families not only improves balance and strength but also teaches them about the benefits of silence and concentration, said Shawna Hansen, an owner and personal trainer at The Sanctuary Day Spa in Reno, which will offer family and children's yoga classes this fall.

Children can "feel stronger and gain more balance physically," Hansen said. Yoga, "also teaches them skills -- to learn and know that it's OK to be quiet, that it feels good to be quiet. Kids today especially are doing so much -- they do this sport, do that activity. They can take skills of physical balance and strength and focus on what they're doing."

James Hunter of Reno has taken two family yoga classes with his 8-year-old daughter, Mia, through Mares, who teaches some classes through Washoe County School District community education program. The Hunters liked the camaraderie with other participants, the energy and motivation that resulted from the stretches and poses and the time it gave them for father-daughter bonding.

"It's a great bonding experience with your kid," James Hunter said. "Sometimes four or five parents had kids with them the same age as mine and we were sharing stories. But mainly it was the different stretches that were very relaxing."

In family yoga, participants perform some stretches and poses as a team, depending on each other for physical support. That's a challenge for him and his daughter, Hunter said, because of their size differences, but it's also part of the partnership and bonding experience.

"When we go in, I know I'm stressed out," he said. "She (Mery) has a way that calms you down. You go through stretches, and in the end, usually she has some story she tells while breathing and meditating. So if it works for me, it works for anybody. My kid loved it."

Yoga is not competitive, Hunter said.

"I coach soccer," he said. "It's great, but it's a different thing."

The family class is one of Mares's favorite classes to teach. It challenges her to give children and adults enough space to get something out of the class. And she enjoys watching the bonding that takes place among family members.

"A lot of parents are coming, wanting to do something healthy, wanting to do something active with their kids," she said. "Not a lot of classes combine the whole family element, offering an opportunity to bond and have fun."

At a demonstration of family and children's yoga last week at the South Valleys Library, several mothers brought their children to see what yoga for the young is all about.

Amy Poggensee brought Max, 6, and Alex, 4. Yoga, she said, is something different that kids can do indoors to stay active.

Danielle Mick brought Allison, 5, and Brandon, 4, after seeing a flyer in the library advertising the free session.

"I thought, 'Why not try it?' Kids like different things," she said.

Hansen said she's excited about launching the classes for families and kids.

"Helping kids be healthy and find a balance in today's world is so huge," she said.

Classes will be shorter in duration than adult classes because children have shorter attention spans, she said.